Mass Effect: Blood and Iron
by Havoc-legionnaire
Summary: AU. How does one deal with a rising superpower? How does one unite a galaxy to stand as one? The answers lie in the hands of one man: Commander Nathaniel Shepard. Discontinued with spoilers now.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own all of this. IT"S MINE... Nah, I'm just kidding. Mass Effect is Bioware's treasured property that I'm just borrowing.**

**A/N: Well, I really don't what much to say about all of this. I mean, my primary focus, in terms of fic writing, is the Halo: the Art of War. But damn you Tikigod, he talked me into at least laying a foundation for a Mass Effect fic idea. So here it is, a little time line that sets the stage for a fairly AU fic. The general premise is that Humanity had more time to prepare for first contact, that it is only somewhat weaker than the entire Council, and that it's not completely friendly for good reason. Anyone who studies German history will see a lot of similarities here, particularly with the Terminus War. But I don't really have a fully thought out plan for this (I don't even know if I should set this in ME 1 or 2). Let's just see where this takes us.**

**As always, credit to Tikigod for both betaing and talking me into writing this. **

**On a final note, if anyone notices some random skipping of multiple words in sentences, please inform me. I don't know why, but the FF doc manager keeps screwing over my edits.**

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><p><strong>2148 CE: The Great Leap<strong>

Humanity discovers a small cache of highly advanced Prothean technology hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars on the south polar region of Promethei Planum. Building on the remnants of this long extinct race, humans quickly explore the science of mass effect fields, leading to the development of faster than light travel and beginning detailed exploration of the Sol system.

Following information from the translated data cache on Mars, humans discover that Charon, Pluto's moon, is actually a massive piece of dormant Prothean technology, a mass relay, encased in ice. Once activated, Jon Grissom leads the first team of explorers through the relay, which instantaneously transports them to another relay in Arcturus, 36 light-years away. The explorers discover that the mass relays are part of a vast network, making travel across the galaxy possible.

**2150-2154 CE: Exploration**

The nations of Earth begin the first surveys for colonization prospects outside the Sol System. One of these surveys discovers the planet Terra Nova. Overpopulation, though stabilized after 2050s by the progress of global urbanization, still lingers. With still over 9 billion people on Earth and the global biosphere only beginning to recover from global climate change, mass colonization became an attractive proposition for many around the world.

Further mining and refinery developments in Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and the discovery of mass effect induced hydrogen-helium trigeneration fusion conclusively solved humanities energy problem for the foreseeable future. Trigeneration fusion flatlined fusion fuel prices by using a mass effect field to alter hot hydrogen nuclei inertia so as to control its high energy neutron emission and transmutate other hydrogen atoms up its isotope chain, eventually becoming Helium-3.

**2154 CE: The Founding**

The Systems Alliance charter is signed by the eighteen largest nations on Earth. The Alliance soon becomes the military and exploratory spearhead of humanity. To defend its expanding territory, humanity begins constructing a massive military fleet and space station at Arcturus, the nexus of several key mass relays and the only relay choke point to Earth, even though they have yet to encounter another intelligent spacefaring race. Notable representatives such as North American Union Marine General Mac Olendorf and Chinese Admiral Han Shaoquan noted at the time that the Alliance suffered from the same commitment reserve clauses from member nations, better known as "caveats", that ultimately caused the quiet and ignominious demise of NATO in 2037. All warnings, however, were ignored.

An accident at Singapore International Spaceport exposes hundreds of humans to dust-form element zero. Roughly 30% of the children born in Singapore after element zero exposure suffer from cancerous growths.

**2155 CE: The First Wave**

The Delta Pavonis Foundation, a major consortium based on Earth, begins settlement of humanity's first extra-solar colony world, the planet Demeter. Later that year, additional colonies are founded on Eden Prime and Terra Nova. Almost immediately, the first signs of the coming colonial insurrection were evident. The new colonies became a hive for those who wished to escape the law, ranging from criminals to religious extremists and hardcore ideologues.

Arcturus Station is formally inaugurated. It proved to be just in time as growing smuggling and human trafficking forced a greater security presences in the new colonies. The problem was further aggravated as nations back on Earth began focusing more and more of their national resources at repairing their damaged environments at the cost of colonial assistance after the Yellowstone Caldera Eruption and the Great Transpacific Tsunami of 2152.

A small number of human children exposed to element zero exhibit minor telekinetic abilities.

**2157-2172 CE: Liberty and Order**

Pluto's orbit becomes circularized as a result of mass relay operations.

The first terrorist attack on Mars occurred as the Colonial Liberation Alliance sought a complete break with their mother countries back on Earth. Colonial expansion ceased as the nations of Earth grappled with their colonial insurgencies.

Within the known galaxy, the Batarians succeeded into consolidating its home world nations and their colonies into one cohesive government dubbed the Batarian Hegemony. In a surprising move the Batarians turned their efforts from colonial expansion to extending their influence over other species in the the lawless Terminus systems. Realizing the benefits of a stable Terminus under Batarian sway, the Council dropped its demand on universal emancipation for merely the Batarian guarantee of ending further slaving operation in of Council claimed space.

Poaching and slaving expeditions several prominent to the Yagh home world resulted in the capture of several FTL capable ships and their crews. After forcing the crews to cooperate, the Yagh quickly achieved a vast technological leap to their new status as a spacefaring species.

**2173-2183 CE: In Flames**

Finally forced by events to acknowledge the flaws of the Alliance charter and of the UN General Assembly that is hampering the counterinsurgency effort, the member nations amended the requirement for collective action from a unanimous vote to 3/4 majority and to make all United Nations General Assembly's action legally binding. This was by no means a cohesive world government, though, as there is still no unified economy, military, or legal code. Still, the so-called "Caveat" jurisdiction restriction problem was left unsolved.

As the war progressed, weapons technology escalated to new levels as element zero enhanced electromagnetic kinetic weapons finally displaced chemical fired weapons. The variably parted shear block ammunition concept becomes the dominant munition for its increased damage capability from fragmentation and special load capacity compared to the proposed laser particulate shear block concept. Kinetic barriers for both ships and ground forces made their debut. Advances were also made to increase the range and combat endurance of ships, especially with shipborne trigeneration fusion reactors, Eezo isotope warheads, and the so-called "Bussard Discharger" that increases the electrostatic charge capacity of ships by bleeding off some of the Element Zero electrostatic charge difference into interstellar gas; these advances contributed greatly to battlefield successes by allowing national and Alliance forces to remain on stations for much longer and to ambush insurgent forces. Sirta Foundation of Mars pioneered several medical advancements, particularly with the invention of Medigel and cybernetic microfiber weaves. Limited genetic modifications begin for the first time for front line troops.

**2184 CE: Reform**

Frustration over the insurrection finally boiled over back on Earth as the "Caveat" issue finally forced the Alliance General Assembly to create a true unified fighting force with full transnational jurisdiction under the command of the Alliance Secretary General. To mollify the member nation's nationalist constituencies, however, the newly born Alliance military was kept relatively small. Calls for volunteer enlistments were made with the greatest number coming from members of the North American Union Marine Corp. N Level training begins as the Alliance creates the Marine Corp Special Operations Command. The MCSOC was special in that it was a Special Operations Capable force, one that fights both conventional battles as well as performing black operations.

**2184-2188 CE: Turning the Tide**

The major actions in the Attican Traverse, spearheaded by the Alliance Fleet and Marine Corp turned the tide of the war. The insurgency began to lose steam as the growing corruption and cruelty of many insurgent formations and the horrible price paid by the Alliance to avoid civilian casualties turned the colonial public towards the Alliance.

The Alliance military is expanded as many colonials came to trust Alliance soldiers more than their own national militaries. Marine Corp N7 Force Recon becomes the preeminent special forces unit of humanity.

**2190-2195 CE: Reconciliation & Stabilization**

The Arcturus Peace Accords are finally signed. Earth's control over the colonies are reestablished and reinforced while most of the former insurgents are granted amnesty. National militaries and Alliance forces remain in wide deployment for the next decade to make sure that the peace survives as the colonial reconstruction begins.

The Omega Protocols are signed by most members of the Terminus systems, placing the Batarian Hegemony in a dominant position over its vassals. All Terminus signatories agreed to pay tribute in resources and slaves and signed a military alliance with the Hegemony. For the first time, the Terminus systems have something close to a unified government. Serious talks begin over a potential Council seat for the Batarians, though they are continually stymied by continued Batarian use of slavery and the protection the Hegemony affords to many criminal organizations in the Terminus. The exact political status of the new Terminus systems hang in limbo.

The Batarian Hegemony begin full regulation and patrol of the Terminus border. This has a direct impact on the Quarian Migrant Fleet as the flotilla is not welcomed in Council space. Khar'shan attempted to force tribute and vassalage from the Migrant Fleet, though the Quarian Admiralty Board and Conclave gave its unanimous refusal. Thus began the so-called "Trail of Sorrow" as the Migrant Fleet attempted to navigate its way around towards the unclaimed sectors of the Attican Traverse, all the while harrassed by the Hegemony and its warlords and minor vassals.

**2195-2266** **CE: Postbellum**

Reconstruction is officially declared over by the UN General Assembly. Alliance members of Earth begins demobilization of their armed forces. Immediately, there are calls for the end of the Alliance military as member nations sought to claw back their national sovereignty. A voracious defense by several outspoken colonial politicians, however, prevented the complete demise of the Alliance military, although it was severely downsized. To maintain its troop standards for any future mobilization, the Alliance military retained its most experienced and battle hardened officers and placed them in lower ranks. All further recruitment were made under very tough standards.

The human genetic advancement project, long delayed by the colonial war, finally takes off as a joint project between Sirta Foundation and the World Health Organization. Genetic engineering, previously restricted to the elimination of genetic diseases, was made available to the general public for the first time. The advancements ranged from the uncontroversial caloric intake regulation, enhanced tissue regeneration, zero gravity adaptation package, and cellulose digestion to the revolutionary element zero adaptation therapy. The latter item makes the human body resistant to the worst effects of element zero poisoning by gathering eezo particles into bundles loosely connected to the nervous system where it could not do much harm; the added bonus was that for the first time, the majority of humanity possessed very weak biotics that could affect a person's own body physics such as weight and velocity but was too weak to be weaponized.

The first post insurrection generation saw a population boom, driving the second wave of colonial expansion that was already pent up with would-be colonist held up by the war. This time, though, there was a very heavy military presence along with the colonial expeditions. The Alliance retained its use and manpower by a modern variation of the ancient Chinese Tuntian system, having garrison forces double as a major construction force to help accelerate colonial development and provide job training for it members while training local militias and constabularies to keep the law. Reservists were also maintained with pension packages and colonial settlement plots. Combined with the general desire for peace and tranquility after two generations of war, Alliance service became an attractive prospect for many young talented people.

In the Sentry Omega cluster, Terminus forces under Yagh warlord Utam'lo Khoratai dealt a devastating blow to the Migrant Fleet by destroying one of the three massive live ships, the _Nimpo_. Starvation breaks out in the Flotilla and the Quarians are forced deeper into the galactic rim, the barren exterior of known space.

**2267 CE: First Contact**

In October, Humanity makes violent first contact with another spacefaring race: the Turians. The Turians observe human explorers attempting to activate a dormant mass relay, a practice forbidden by galactic law after the Rachni Wars, and attack. The colony of Shanxi became the site of a pitch battle between Turian and Alliance garrison forces under General Mathias Williams. After a bloody space battle, the Turians landed ground troops. William's force of regulars and militia fell back into the countryside and, assisted by a group of old former insurgents helping them to live off the wild, began an asymmetrical campaign against the invaders.

Meanwhile, Earth was in political chaos. The UN General Assembly proved unable to make a collective decision. It was later discovered by New York Times that several nations, particularly the Arab Federation and the African Union, have let their armed forces atrophied far beyond what was known at the time because of their historically understandable aversion to armed conflict. Left with no choice, the combined bloc of the North American Union, the Chinese People's Federation, the Russian Federation, and the Latin American Republics turned to the Alliance General Assembly and forced a vote to mobilize and commit Alliance forces. After a slim majority Yea vote, the call went out for full mobilization of all Alliance assets.

As Alliance and willing member national forces assembled, Alliance Special Operations Command dispatched the 3rd "Black Guards" Battalion of the 2nd Marine Special Operations Regiment under Commander Tadius Ahern to reinforce and resupply General Williams.

One particular incident in New Tianjin proved to be a major thorn in Council-Alliance relations for years to come. A particularly oafish Turian soldier inadvertently incited a citywide riot that forced the Turian fleet above to pour massed orbital fire on the civilians, causing the deaths of over a hundred thousand civilians.

By December, the Council had reviewed the situation and reprimanded the Turians for their overzealous response. General Tiran, the commanding officer of the Turian expedition and the one who first fired on the humans, was removed from command and an Asari peace delegation was dispatched to Shanxi. However, the delegation arrived mere days after the massacre at Tianjin and all attempts at negotiation were rebuffed.

**2268 CE: Counterattack**

By January, the 1st Alliance Fleet was ready for the counterstrike. In coordination with General Williams and Commander Ahern, Alliance forces staged a simultaneous attack that destroyed the Turian fleet and captured a Turian frigate, the _Haliat_, intact. The Asari peace delegation were killed aboard the Turian flagship as it was destroyed by Alliance warships. The Turians asked for no quarter and none was given by Admiral Kastanie Drescher, resulting in the complete destruction of the Turian force. Taking advantage of the moment and of the captured intel, the 1st Fleet immediately struck out against the Turian's staging ground at Enchati. Surprised by the unexpected Alliance attack, the Turians were quickly defeated and the colony occupied. Alliance reinforcements soon followed, as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Fleets poured into Enchati. Further lightening strikes followed as Alliance ships fanned out and secured key Mass Relays, effectively locking down the entire Attican Traverse.

Both the Humans and Turians responded to new developments with further escalation. By unanimous vote, the members of the United Nations agreed to full mobilization and the draft in all nations and passed the Enforcement Act, making the the 3/5 majority the only requirement for legally binding UN General Assembly actions. The UN General Assembly also passed the Unified Command Act, subsuming all member militaries to Alliance command during war. For their part, the Turian Hierarchy also began calling up their reserves and calling on the Salarians and Asari to do the same.

As both the Humans and the Turians slide closer to total war, the Asari Republics dispatched another peace delegation, this time led by Matriarch Lydania on the dreadnaught _Destiny Ascension_, to intervene. Matriarch Lydania arrived just in time as the 1st and 2nd Alliance fleets were minutes away from engaging the Turian 8th and 12th Fleets at the Delta-9 mass relay. This time, a ceasefire was made and the Alliance withdrew to Enchati. The Enchati Peace Accord was signed where the Asaris, on behalf of the Council, apologized to the citizens of Shanxi and paid reparations while the Alliance, representing humanity, agreed to not activate any more relays. Though angered by the fact that it wasn't the Turians that apologized, Alliance forces nonetheless withdrew to Shanxi as per the Enchati Accords.

**2269-2271 CE: Second Chance**

The first human diplomatic mission arrives on the Citadel. Humanity becomes a signatory for the Citadel Conventions, including the Treaty of Firaxin that limited the number of dreadnaughts the Alliance and Earth nations may have.

Nonetheless, the Alliance military and the national militaries of Earth begin laying the foundation for a quick and massive expansion of humanity's combined might. The captured Turian frigate _Haliat_ was secretly dissected to learn the strengths and weaknesses of humanity's potential foe. The United Nations passed the Modernization Act, a massive modernization program for all of its member nation militaries to bring all of humanity's military potential up to date. New major shipyards were commissioned by the dozens for potential naval expansion. The hulls of forty _Everest_-class dreadnaughts were forged, compartmentalized, parted, and hidden to escape inspections; the Everest-class hull was specifically designed as a "dual use" system whose individual compartments could be plausibly argued to be of civilian use. Cruisers were secretly upgunned and reinforced to the point that a standard Alliance _Metropolitan_ class cruiser could take on any of its counterpart in the known galaxy with confidence of victory. Frigates were phased out in favor of heavier destroyers, though its true performance was hidden from all observers. In addition, the Alliance military adopted a new doctrine based primarily on the former Soviet operational and strategic concept of Deep Battle. Rather than seeking a decisive head on engagement, the Alliance fleet would emphasis mobile warfare that seeks to encircle the enemy on a strategic level with deep penetration into an enemy's strategic depth to induce a catastrophic and systemic collapse of the enemy's operational capability.

First contact was made with the Batarians, Yagh, and the lesser Terminus races after an Alliance supply convoy was attacked by Terminus pirates.

The Quarians were first encountered by Alliance forces in the Attican Beta cluster. For the first time in nearly a hundred years for the Quarians and the first time ever for humanity, a first contact encounter was peaceful. The desperate shape of the Migrant Fleet, now reduced by a full third of its numbers before the Trail of Sorrow began, and the preceding technical reputation of Quarians resulted in a lucrative trade agreement. The Flotilla would send computer and VI experts to aid humanity in network security and modernization in exchange for shockingly low prices on medigel and He-3 fuel as well as access to human starship markets.

The People's Daily of China released a bombshell on the eve of General Mathias Williams' promotion to Lt. General, revealing that Williams was on the verge of surrendering to the Turians during the battle for Shanxi before Commander Ahern's reinforcements arrived. Envoys from William's staff had attempted to approach the Turians for terms, though the Turians failed to understand the envoy's peaceful intentions and wiped out the mission. While technically there were no actual violations and the general retained his position, William's promotion was scuttled and his family was publicly disgraced.

The biggest Terminus raid on Humans so far occurs on the colony of Mindoir. The colony's milita and regular garrison fought a vicious battle and inflicted significant damage on the slavers, but could not prevent the capture of nearly a third of its inhabitants before the Alliance fleet forced the pirates' withdrawal. The Batarians claimed no responsibility as it was conducted not by the Hegemony's forces, though they reiterated that the point of origin of the slavers are under Batarian protection and breaching it would be an act of war. Human slaves were soon spotted on the Batarian home world of Khar'shan. Alliance complaints to the Council came to naught as the Council claimed to have no jurisdiction over the Terminus Systems.

As a direct result, Cerberus is founded and its manifesto, penned by one "Illusive Man", is found circulating through the extra-net. Though initially considered nothing more than some concerned citizens or conspiracy theorists, Cerberus convinced all doubters of its sincerity by launching several daring operations which included the assassination of Turian General Tiran and the humiliation and political (and occasionally actual) assassination of several dovish politicians of the European Union and the Latin American Republics. Afterward, the Alliance and the United Nations distanced itself from Cerberus and the Council officially labeled the organization as racial terrorists.

**2272-2275 CE: Threats and Promises**

The human economy makes it debut in the galactic economy. Eldfell-Ashland Energy and Sirta Foundation in particular quickly took large market shares due to Medigel and high grade He-3 fuel in staggering quantities thanks to trigeneration reactor technology.

The United Nations passed the Military Expansion Act, forcing all member nations to expand their militaries with universal service and reservist retention in addition to allocating more funds to expanding the ranks of the Systems Alliance military. Weapon systems, command and control systems, and logistics were standardized for all human forces for the first time. Frontier colonies, with help from Alliance garrison forces, began a massive fortification campaign to prevent another Mindoir raid. Several more frontier raids occurred, though they ceased after several Alliance anti-pirate sweeps and the growing strength of colonial defenses.

The first Batarian-Alliance diplomatic summit took place on Earth. It proved to be diplomatic disaster and a portend of things to come. Both sides approached the conference with specific and opposing grievances. The Alliance demanded an end to further slaving operations, the repatriation of all human slaves within the Terminus, and negotiation on disputed worlds. The Batarian envoy wished to discuss nothing more than the pace and terms of Humanity's vassalage to the Hegemony under the Omega Protocol, which included regular shipment of slaves. The summit ended with both sides walking out in outrage. A cold war begins as the Attican Traverse and the Skyllian Verge saw a massive build up of human and Batarian forces prepared for potential conflict. The Alliance General Staff, led by Admiral Steven Hackett, began laying plans for war with the Batarians, which resulted in the so-called Hackett plan.

The Quarian Migrant Fleet becomes the United Nation's biggest trading partner, something shocking in and of itself considering the size of the Quarian population. Demand for experienced engineers and technicians brought a Quarian migration into the frontier colonies, a mixture of those going on their pilgrimage and sojourners seeking to earn some credits for their ships and families back in the Flotilla. For the first time in four centuries, the Quarians stationed a permanent diplomatic mission on an alien home world to negotiate further trade deals. Remittances by Quarian sojourners and pilgrims fund the construction of the _Shaha kor Kheela_ Station, a joint Human-Quarian venture using a massive hollowed out asteroid in the Ming system to provide a safe, reliable, and steady supply of food for the Migrant Fleet. In addition, the Quarian demand for civilian ships fueled a ship construction boom in Alliance Space.

Cerberus achieves its greatest coup so far: publishing a joint Salarian-Turian analysis on the potential threat of humanity. In the nine hundred page document, Humanity was regarded as a second rate power, though a very tough one that was more technologically advance than Council species in certain notable area such as reactor technology, theoretical physics, and medicine. Though capable of initial upsets the likes of the Enchati offensive during the First Contact War, humanity could not last in a serious war because of the inherent disunity among the nations of Earth in the political, economic, and military realm. In its conclusion, any human territorial gains would be small and temporary at best and that humanity would inevitably be swallowed up by the Batarian Hegemony. Still, humanity's economic power should not be ignored and the frontier colonies closest to Council space should be considered for future annexation by the Turian Hierarchy. However, there was a final corollary in the report that warned of the massive potential economic and military strength of a unified humanity and that it would serve the Council's interest to prevent that from happening. The consequences of this release was explosive, galvanizing the previously weak movement to unite all of humanity into one single cohesive political order. The most extreme of the unity movement coalesced into the Terra Firma Party, which quickly found roots in nearly all the nations of Earth.

**2276-2294 CE: Rivalry and Escalation**

Human colonies in the Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge begin to grow in ever greater numbers as the Batarians proved to be unable to successfully grow and maintain their colonies in the disputed areas. To even the odds, the Batarians secretly began commissioning pirate and slaving raids into the disputed zone, though to only minimal effect.

The first economic analysis of the Human economy done by the University of Thessia was released. The report noted that the current economic and industrial potential of the humans were seconded only to the Volus and Asari economies and had significant growth potential, though it is severely hampered by the factionalized laws and internal competition among the many nations of Earth and her colonies. Attempts by Council species investors to get in on the action, however, were blocked by UN laws against potential technological export that were championed by Terra Firma.

Cerberus again makes the news in a series of daring raids against famed warlord and slaver Forlant Seegak, culminating in the assassination of the warlord himself. Among the thousands of slaves rescued during the raid were many witnesses that claimed to have seen Cerberus operatives cooperating with Alliance personnel, though the Alliance vigorously denied involvement.

Increasing incidents of border clashes over the years between scouting forces of the Alliance and the Batarians threatened to escalate into open war with both side calling for partial mobilization, though Asari mediation maintained the tense peace. Still, the Council eventually declared that any of its citizens going into the Skyllian Verge and Attican Traverse do so at their own risk.

The Quarians signed a free trade agreement with the United Nations. This great improvement in Quarian-Human relations were made all the more stark by the fact that Council species still have not yet lifted their tariff barriers for fear of being flooded with medigel and He-3 fuel among other products at such low prices that they simply could not compete with. Quarian Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay became the first alien to address the United Nations General Assembly, securing several large lines of credit that was used to finance the repair and restoration of the Flotilla's defense force. In a secret agreement, Admiral Raan committed the Quarians to provide material and technical assistance in advent of a war with the Batarians. The Quarians purchased over five hundred Alliance cruisers and destroyers, three of the new Kilimanjaro class dreadnaughts, and thousands of fighters at giveaway prices that were officially for the Flotilla defense force though they were to be given back to the Alliance once war began. Quarians engineers and technicians secretly collaborated with their human counterparts to streamline and update the forty unfinished Everest-class dreadnaughts to the specs of the Kilimanjaro-class.

**2295 CE: The Skyllian Blitz**

Several criminal organizations, warlords, and minor species of the Terminus assembled a large fleet of over three hundred warships and transports for a massive raid into the Skyllian Verge with the Human colony of Elysium as their first target. This was secretly done with the Batarian Hegemony's financial backing and political blessing to halt the Human colonial expansion that have so far proved unstoppable. This was the beginning of the Skyllian Blitz.

The attack on Elysium should have by all rights succeeded. The combined Terminus fleet broke through the orbital defenses and destroyed the Alliance patrols before landing ground troops and slaving parties. While most of the cities on the planet were able to raise their city shields and their garrisons and militia held off the enemy, the capital city of Grissom, home to over a million people, was hit particularly hard during the first hours of the battle and could not sustain its shields and defenses. Realizing their opportunity, the invaders focused their efforts on Grissom. However, by chance, the 1st "Totenkopf" battalion of the 1st Marine Special Operations Regiment under the command of Commander Nathaniel Shepard was stationed at Grissom at the time. Though lacking sufficient heavy weapons and outnumbered nearly 5 to 1, Shepard rallied the tattered militia and regulars and drew the Terminus forces into vicious street fighting at point blank range to neutralize enemy artillery and air strikes. At the most critical point of the battle, Shepard himself stood alone in the face of the primary enemy thrust into the city center where the civilians took refuge, holding the line himself until the gap in the line was plugged. Against all odds, Shepard not only succeeded in protecting the civilians, but encircled the invaders and forced their surrender. Alliance reinforcements later arrived and destroyed or captured the remainder of the Terminus raiders. For his actions that day, Shepard was awarded the Star of Terra.

Among the captured ships and prisoners of the Elysium, Alliance intelligence found evidence of Batarian backing of the attack and revealed it to the galactic media. Seeing their hand revealed, the Batarian Hegemony declared war upon humanity and launched a massive preemptive strategic offensive. The Terminus War has begun.

**2295-2299 CE: The Terminus War**

With the final collapse of the Batarian-Human affair, the Council declared its neutrality and locked down its borders with both powers. Opinions were split among the Council itself. As per previous assessment, the Batarians' actions were both expected and inevitable considering the attitude of both the Batarians themselves and of humanity. Among the Turians, there were still many who wanted to see the humans humbled after the their own chance was taken from them by the Asari mediation in the First Contact War. On the other hand, there was still a general disgust with the Batarians over slavery, their acceptance of criminal organizations, the brazen aggression of their attack. Ultimately, the fact that no one in Council space wanted war kept the Council out of this conflict. The outcome was already a foregone conclusion in their eyes as the Batarian fleet alone was almost three times the combined Human fleet and almost five times stronger when the Terminus minors threw their forces in.

The combined Human forces enacted the Hackett plan as envisioned almost a decade ago. The intent was to fight a series of delaying actions to attrit the Batarians and to preserve their own forces while the Alliance and national militaries finished their mobilization and the colonists of the Skyllian Verge and the outer Attican Traverse evacuated. The initial Batarian offensive met stiff resistance before the Combined Fleet fell back deep into Human territory. The Batarians then fanned out to seize the disputed worlds, but each time the fleet ran into heavy resistance from remaining colonial garrisons, militia, and fortifications that held them off long enough for the naval forces to arrive and counterattack. Alliance ships often bypassed the Batarians' relay choke hold and flanked their opponents by using their superior inter-relay range and endurance. Eventually, the Skyllian Verge fell to the Batarians, though it had cost the Hegemony nearly a third of their combined fleet. After spending three months to regroup and consolidating their supply lines, the Hegemony launched the invasion of the Attican Traverse. As per the Hackett plan, the Alliance fleet denied the Batarians a decisive battle by committing just enough forces to drive back each attack despite not inflicting serious casualties on the Batarians. The Batarians fleet, though, grew weaker and weaker as they were forced to strongly garrison nearly every system they had conquered in the Skyllian Verge. This was primarily due to a concerted Alliance campaign of commerce raiding and commando strikes. The Alliance employed a revolutionary new class of stealth attack frigates and the ability to track ships through FTL travel. Wolfpacks of these stealth frigates, operating with carriers and fighter support wrought havoc on the Batarian supply lines and helped to bring their offensive to a halt. From their heavily defended anchorage at the Attican Beta, the Alliance Fleet launched several simultaneous counteroffensives that heavily mauled the Batarian 4th and 11th Fleets, which combined with the Batarian overextension brought the two combatants to effective parity. By this point, even the Batarians were forced to concede that the pound for pound, the Alliance was qualitatively superior to their own forces in both training and technology and that a great numerical superiority was needed to defeat the humans. Left with no choice, Khar'shan committed its remaining strategic reserves and called upon its vassals to provide auxiliary forces to take over garrison duty behind the lines.

With this reinforcement, Batarians launched their offensive on New Tehran with the aim of bludgeoning the humans into submission, whatever the cost. New Tehran was at the time the primary Alliance anchorage for the outer Attican Traverse and was home to over 52 million human colonist and the 6th Fleet under Admiral Kahoku. Deliberately trying to draw the Alliance Combined Fleet into decisive engagement where superior numbers would carry the day, the Batarians laid siege to the colony rather than try to overrun it. The next six months in New Tehran devolved into the single bloodiest battle in recorded galactic history as the Alliance fleet fought desperately to save the colony and the 6th Fleet and to evacuate the civilians. The battle also marked a shift in the war as protocols of the Citadel conventions regarding the treatment of civilians and prisoners of war were discarded by the Batarians and in turn the Alliance. From this point on, the maltreatment and execution of prisoners became more and more common. The New Tehran campaign, now commonly referred to by humans as "the 2nd Leningrad", ended in a draw. The Batarians succeeded in destroying the Alliance anchorage, annihilated the entire 6th Fleet, and savaged the 3rd and 8th Fleets. However, the Alliance in turn managed to hold the colony and exhaust much of the Batarians' strategic reserves. The unambiguous losers, though, were the citizens of New Tehran, who lost over 20 million soul to mostly starvation and Batarian slaving parties as well as the near apocalyptic damage to their colony's infrastructure and biosphere.

After New Tehran, both sides pulled back to make mend their losses and rethink their strategy. The Alliance was able to not only make good their losses, but grew stronger as more men and ships, especially the forty Everest-class dreadnaughts, flowed out from their dry docks and training centers. The Quarians proved critical here. Lingering memories of Trail of Sorrow and their growing diplomatic and economic ties with humanity drove the Quarians to give every effort short of belligerency to aid the Alliance. The Migrant Fleet had returned the five hundred Alliance built warships and dispatched tens of thousands of technicians and engineers to help Alliance dock crews build new vessels and space stations and repair damaged ones at an astonishing rate. Quarians were even recruited as spies for the Alliance. At the same point, the Batarian allied auxiliaries proved unreliable in battle, costing the Batarian several operational opportunities as they were forced to rescue their allies that were on the verge of being overrun; the many species of the Terminus have little desire to fight to the death so that the Hegemony could expand its reach. The most critical outcome for both sides, however, was that the strategic initiative, the overall momentum of the war, was now up for grabs.

The war meant to secure Batarian dominance in and around the Terminus is proving to be fiasco for the Hegemony. Growing unrest throughout the Terminus from disgruntled minor species and warlords forced to contribute to the war effort had all but developed into a full blown insurgency, one that was being fanned by Cerberus and Alliance financial support. Most importantly, the growing attrition of war had all but bankrupted Khar'shan and consumed the finest soldiers and ships of the Hegemony, threatening the long term prospects of Batarian dominance in the Terminus. Under intense public pressure to do something to end the slaughter, the Council called for a ceasefire to discuss a peaceful resolution of the Batarian-Human conflict which both sides accepted to lick their wounds. Batarian demands for the ceding of the Skyllian Verge eventually gave way to an offer of status quo ante bellum, though the Alliance rebuffed all offers as the war was clearly turning in Earth's favor. Realizing that they need a significant leverage over the humans to conclude this war, the Batarians made an incredible strategic gamble. Concentrating the cream and body of their remaining forces while leaving their allies to guard their operational flanks, the Hegemony launched a large scale offensive against a target the humans are certain to defend with all their strength: Earth.

The Battle of Arcturus saw the largest naval engagement in the history of the known galaxy, eclipsing even the battle for Manae during the Krogan Rebellion nearly a millennium ago. A Batarian fleet of over a fifteen hundred warships smashed through all human resistance on their way to Arcturus, the gateway to Earth. Seemingly caught off guard, the Alliance could muster only the Fifth fleet and its one hundred and eighty five warships to reinforce Arcturus' extensive defenses before the Batarians cut off the last accessible relays. Attempts to break through and reinforce Arcturus by the Alliance 2nd, 3rd, and a reconstituted 6th fleets were blocked by the Batarian rear guard; Arcturus would have to stand alone. Some additional reinforcements did came as all available ships in the Sol system ranging patrol cutters to training fighters were placed in Hackett's disposal. Trainee pilots from the Luna Naval Academy's class of 2399, coincidentally graduating a mere 18 hours before the first Batarian ships were projected to arrive, were rushed into service, defiantly marching in parade before Alliance Secretary General Al-Fulani before going straight into battle. The battle became a bloodbath as the Batarians threw themselves at Arcturus defense network. At several points during the battle, the Batarians broke through the lines, but each time Admiral Hackett counterattacked and plugged the holes. At the end of the third day, the Fifth Fleet was exhausted and decimated with Hackett himself seriously wounded. Arcturus was on the edge of breaking. But the battle ended with a surprising Batarian strategic withdrawal from the entire Attican Traverse as the rest of the Alliance Combined Fleet executed Operation Sickle Stroke, a massive strategic offensive deep into the Terminus systems with over eight hundred warships.

Within the first three days of their attack, the Alliance overran the weak and unreliable Terminus allied fleets and took back most of the Skyllian Verge, severing the Batarian supply lines. The Alliance Combined Fleet then invaded the Terminus Systems themselves, taking seventeen Batarian worlds by bypassing the Batarian relay defense networks. Cerberus once again proved itself to be a force to be reckoned with, providing critical intelligence to overcome several fortified worlds, launching large scale cyber attacks, instigating large scale uprisings, and assassinating half a dozen Batarian admirals and generals. For their part, the Batarians had little with which to stop the Alliance offensive as the last of their strategic reserves had already been committed far away against Hackett at Arcturus. Rather than taking worlds by assault or wiping out its inhabitants, the Combined Fleet simply destroyed all its spaceborne assets, rendering the world useless for the Batarian fleet. As the Batarian Fleet rushed back to defend their own territories, they were continually stalled by the Alliance fleets as the campaign now shifted to favor their great strength in free flowing battles of maneuver. Delaying actions fought by the Alliance 2nd, 3rd, and 6th fleets along with the 5th fleet, repaired and reinforced, strike into the Batarian's rear guard at the Iera system were the first stage of a strategic encirclement of the entire Batarian fleet on a scale never thought possible by anyone. Meanwhile, several Alliance battlegroups spread out throughout the Terminus to strike at the worlds held by the Batarian allies. These raids were punitive in nature as well as practical, sending a clear message of the consequences of aggression against mankind. In the words of Commodore Junichiro Ishiwara, the commanding officer of the raid on the Blood Pack HQ on Bahak: "_Make Humanity remembered in the Terminus for the next ten thousand years so that no Batarian, Krogan, or anyone else will ever again dare to even squint at a Human!_"

With the Batarian fleet effectively contained and cut off from their supply lines in what became known as the Caleston Pocket, the Alliance fleet fought their way to Torfan, the main anchorage of the Batarian Fleet and the final line of defense before Khar'shan. In the only truly decisive ground action of the war, the 1st and 9th Marine division landed and attacked the ground based anti-ship batteries and the main Batarian fleet headquarters at the capital city Nar'pon even as the naval battle raged above. Commander Shepard and the Totenkopf battalion once again made their presence felt as they led the bloody assault on fortified positions. The Totenkopf were nearly decimated as they threw themselves against the Batarian 20th Lance. Though costing nearly ¾ of the Totenkopfs' numbers, Shepard succeeded closing the trap, capturing the ground based batteries, and preventing a counterattack on the neighboring 194th Marine Regiment's flanks which undoubtedly saved many more lives than lost. In an incident that marred Shepard's reputation and confused both his supporters and critics, the Commander personally executed every human mercenary he could get his hands on while, surprisingly, treating every alien POW with courteous respect.

After the fall of Torfan, the Batarian Fleet attempted to break out of their pocket to defend their home world. By this point, the Alliance fleet was superior in both skill and numbers thanks to the heavy casualties the Batarians have sustained from direct attacks and from being out of supply as well as the desertion of many of their allies. In a series of running relay battles, the Batarian fleet was, for all intents and purposes, destroyed as they threw themselves at the Alliance relay choke points, each centered on a squadron of dreadnaughts. With the final major naval engagement at the Omega-19 relay that competed the destruction of the Batarian Fleet, Khar'shan was left at the mercy of the Alliance. Initially, the Batarians attempted to negotiate very generous terms for themselves using the over two hundred thousand human slaves still held on Khar'shan as hostages. However, the Alliance proved its unwillingness to settle for anything less that total capitulation by bombarding the very areas where the human slaves were suspected to be held, killing well over a thousand of their own in addition tens of thousands of Batarians. Seeing their last leverage gone, the Batarians offered their surrender on the terms stipulated by Earth. The final treaty was signed on Elysium. Of all the signatories present, the most surprising was Admiral Kahoku of the 6th Fleet who had been thought to be killed at New Tehran but instead had been captured and subsequently liberated.

The final toll of the biggest interstellar war since the Krogan Rebellion left over 80 million dead on the Alliance side and 68 million for Batarians and their allies. Over a hundred planets saw major battles both on land and in space. The Batarians and their allies lost almost seven thousand warships of all sorts and tens of thousands of civilian crafts while Humanity lost roughly fourteen hundred warships and countless civilian crafts. Critically, though, the economic infrastructure in most of the Alliance's territory survived scarred, but mostly intact while the infrastructure of the Terminus systems were utterly destroyed.

**2300 CE: Unification**

The stunning upset by the humans in the Terminus War completely upended the galactic order of things. The Treaty of Elysium forced harsh terms on the Batarians. All disputed territories were ceded to Humanity along with a fairly large war indemnity. Non-human population on those worlds ceded to the Alliance were forcibly expelled into the Terminus. The Hegemony release all the minor species of the Terminus from servitude and emancipated all slaves of all species. A demilitarized zone was placed within Batarian space, the violation of which was to be considered by the Alliance as an act of war. All Batarian political influence and prestige was lost as the devastated Terminus powers blamed the Batarians for launching its war of aggression and for its devastating consequences. Khar'shan itself later fell into civil war as the Hegemony fractured back into individual nations.

Within humanity itself, the Terminus War was a catharsis. Though victorious, the blood of the fallen forced humanity to acknowledge the need to present one united front to a hostile galaxy. The United Nations General Assembly, as its last act, passed by unanimous vote the Unification Act. For the first time, all of humanity answered to one sovereign state: the Systems Alliance. An Alliance parliament was finally formed with the former national governments and colonies becoming subsidiary states. All military and economic assets passed onto the Alliance government and incorporated into a unified body. In a further surprise, the Illusive Man for the first time appeared in public in New York, protected by an impenetrable shield of schadenfreude, to congratulate mankind for its accomplishments. In multiple media interviews, he vowed that Cerberus would continue to protect humanity from the shadows and would be happy to work with the Alliance.

On the galactic scene, the Council was left aghast. With the defeat of the Batarians, the Terminus Systems quickly slid back into absolute chaos. In an outrage, the Alliance responded to attempts by Council Specters to enforce the Treaty of Firaxin by withdrawing from the Citadel Conventions. Earth announced that it has no intention of either respecting Specter authority or to scrap the forty five dreadnaughts they had secretly constructed with Quarian help. In the now famous tirade at the Council Chamber, Ambassador Udina all but dared the Council to enforce the treaty and reminded the Councilors that Humanity does not need the Council. In an even bigger shock, the Alliance parliament passed the Human-Quarian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance. For their priceless assistance during the war, the Quarians were granted several dextros-environment worlds on frontier near the Batarian demilitarized zone to settle and protect. In exchange for guarding the frontier, the Quarians entered a mutual defense treaty with Systems Alliance and formed an economic union with humanity. In a final insult, the Salarian STG discovered, perhaps deliberately allowed so, that the Alliance and Cerberus have carried out talks of cooperation and even integration as humanity's intelligence and black ops organization. Several Specters and STG teams in deep reconnaissance were captured by Alliance Force Recon Marines in cooperation with Cerberus agents and showcased before the galactic media before repatriation, confirming Alliance-Cerberus reconciliation to be fact. After the fiasco, the Alliance diplomatic mission was expelled from the Citadel and the Council recalled its ambassador from Earth.

Still, the Council could not allow relations with the newest major galactic power to turn sour. Previously considering a feisty but untenable minor power, the Alliance proved itself to be a first rate galactic power in all sense of the word. With the conquest of the resource rich Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge, the already strong Alliance economy was made all but self-sufficient; this rendered economic coercion impossible. Considering the understandably xenophobic state of mind of the human masses and the mobilized, enlarged, brilliantly led, and battle hardened Alliance fleet that equaled the Turian fleet in peacetime strength, a war would be utterly inconclusive and devastating to both sides. A Salarian STG analysis concluded that the combined Alliance-Quarian fleet could defeat any one Council member in an offensive war, outlast two in a defensive war, and make any conflict with all three members a war to the finish and a Pyrrhic victory for the Council at best. So complete was the militarization of human society that the report concluded that the humans were more "a military with a nation than a nation with a military". On the other hand, the Human-Quarian alliance did serve as a powerful buffer against the chaos of the Terminus systems from one side of the galaxy and were at least viewed as civilized. In the public realm, humanity still commanded significant favor as the victim of aggression and for their forcing the Batarians to return the Council species' loved ones held in slavery, though that was somewhat balanced out by fear of this new rising superpower. The Council had no choice but to recognize that there is now a serious rival galactic power over which they have little influence, one that they cannot stop from rising and will only grow stronger with time. The Council recognized the Alliance's post facto withdrawal from the Citadel Conventions. After several months of quiet to cool volatile passions, the Alliance diplomatic mission was readmitted and Council space was reopened to Alliance trade.

**2301-2306 CE: A New Cold War**

Despite the victory over the Batarians, Alliance military spending have not fallen back to their pre-war levels. Indeed, defense spending has actually increased both at absolute value and proportional to the new united and much larger than before Human economy. Major funding have been directed to rebuilding and fortifying not only the Terminus frontier, but also the Council-Alliance border. Under question from the understandably frustrated and indeed frightened Council, Ambassador Udina only offered the reason as "security", declaring that Earth would never again allow itself or her colonies to be at the mercy of any foreign powers. Most worryingly for the galaxy at large, though, was the growing size of the already formidable Systems Alliance Fleet. The Turians began fortifying their own frontier with the Humans, though the project was abandoned after a group of Turian generals led by General Adrian Victus reminded the Council of how easily the Alliance fleet had bypassed the entire Batarian relay defense network, which was built along Turian lines. In response, the Hierarchy begins laying the economic and political ground work for a massive expansion of the Turian military. Palaven stepped up reservist training, secured massive lines of credit from the Volus Protectorate, and pressed the Council to give its blessing to increasing the standing strength of the Turian fleet, though the decision is currently deadlocked with the Asari dead set against an arms race the Humans and Quarians while the Salarians were curiously split on the issue.

Diplomatically, the situation is also deteriorating. Several outer Terminus minor powers have been courted by both the Alliance and the Council. Rumors of a number of proxy wars within the Terminus have met vehement denials from both Earth and the Citadel. The Council, specifically the Asari, have several diplomatic missions in Batarian space to urge reconciliation and reunification, something perceived by the Alliance and Quarians as an attempt to contain and surround them. However, the primary focus of all Terminus watchers was the Yagh, who have finally established themselves as a significant power by conquering most the Nemean Abyss. Popular rumors postulate that their sudden rise in power was due to Salarian interference to create another serious Terminus rival to the Alliance now that the Batarians seem unable to take up that role.

Human-Quarian economic, political, and military cooperation increased to a level that rivaled the Council species. With their population finally settled on solid ground, the most space worthy and spacious ships of the Migrant Fleet were quickly refurbished and formed into the third largest merchant marine fleet in the galaxy, offering the Quarians a major income source as commercial transports. The Alliance stepped up its effort to bolster its own military as well as that of their new found Quarian allies, ostensibly for defense against potential Yagh incursions. The most shocking products of this relationship were the Fuji-class dreadnaughts and the Normandy-class Stealth Attack Destroyer, both built by Alliance industrial muscle with a hybrid of Quarian and human designs. The Fuji-class dreadnaught was the first dreadnaught of any navy in the galaxy to unambiguously eclipse the Asari's Destiny Ascension-class dreadnaught in firepower, speed, and protection, making them the most powerful ships in the galaxy. Of the five Fuji-class dreadnaughts built yet, four were formed into independent battle groups while the last was handed over to the Quarians to become their first new dreadnaught since their exodus from the Perseus Veil. The Normandy-class stealth destroyer built upon the experience during the war that showed the older Nautilus-class stealth frigate simply did not pack enough firepower to exploit its stealth capability. The first squadron of the Normandy class destroyers were placed under the command of the famed wolfpack skipper Commodore David Anderson and integrated into the Fifth Fleet. In response to all this, the Council finally authorized the doubling of the Turian fleet's standing strength as well as setting aside a significant portion of their annual revenue for an emergency war fund.

Amidst this deteriorating situation, several high profile cases of espionage occurred on the Citadel. The most notable of these cases were the arrest and execution of three suspected Cerberus agents with two more waiting the firing squad. The assassination of two Specters near the Alliance-Council border and the arrest of three suspected Asari and Salarian spies in Sirta Foundation are are suspected to be Cerberus reprisals with Alliance backing. Tension rose as suspicion was answered with more suspicion. The diplomatic scuffle finally ended with a joint Hanar and Elcor mediated summit between the Systems Alliance Prime Minister and Quarian Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay on one side and the full Citadel Council on the other, resulting in both sides exchanging prisoners. Rumors are that the Asari warlord Aria T'loak of Omega and the Shadow Broker himself were the real prime movers for the summit, though it was denied by all participants.

The first report leaked to the galactic media that the Council have plans to diplomatically engage the Alliance to ease tensions and to invest the Alliance in the current galactic order. Among the myriad of proposals were free trade agreements and to eventually offer humanity a seat on the Council. As one of the first steps, the Council plan to offer mankind a chance to induct one of their own into the Spectres. Humanity, however, has been quite divided over the issue. For the moment, there is no hint on what the Systems Alliance will do with this opportunity.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Greetings, fans of Blood and Iron. I come with some sad news. Having experienced my first semester as a full time graduate student, I can say with certainty that I will never have time to write this fic as I wanted it, especially since that Art of War takes precedent over this. However, it would have been douche to leave all of you guys hanging after so long, so I decided to rework my notes for the fic into a spoiler of sorts. Below is section that would have uncovered the pre-Terminus War political intrigue leading up to the fic. I'm not quite sure if me writing this violates any terms of use for the site. Anyone that knows better, please inform me. Finally, I shall try to write out the spoilers for the other sections, including personality and plot.

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><p><strong>Historical Inspiration and Explanation<strong>

As I have stated before, the premise of the story was based on the Unification of Germany and its destabilizing effect on peace in Europe. Before the Napoleonic Wars, the specter of German Unification haunted the old nations of Europe as a united Germany was strong and rich enough to crush everyone. The Thirty Years War, however, wrecked that prospect. However, that introduced another problem: for any expansionist nation like France, it was so hard to resist simply gobbling up the weak German mini-states like a bag of popcorn. The wars of the mid-1600s to the Napoleonic Wars were all basically attempts by France to take advantage of German weakness and take over Europe.

After the Napoleonic Wars, everyone recognized that fixing the German problem was the key to peace in Europe. Can't unite them because they would be too strong, but can't keep them separate as they would, in Henry Kissinger's words, serve as "a playground for French Armies". So the victors of the Napoleonic Wars created the German Confederation, a loose defensive alliance that can prevent French invasions into German territory but was too divided to threaten anyone.

The system worked until the Prussians under Bismarck became powerful and prestigious enough to unify the German states under the German Empire. Now the rest of Europe are terrified that Germans might eventually just conquer everything in sight and that even an alliance of all the other European powers together would not be enough to stop them. For their part, the Germans being surrounded on all sides with nations that have invaded them multiple times in the past made them feel too insecure to not make themselves as strong as possible, not realizing that being so strong terrified everyone else into banding together to crush Germany. Bismarck realized this problem and did his best not to scare the living daylight out of everyone else, but his successors weren't as wise and went around bullying everyone while being blind to the obvious backlash. The two world wars were basically demonstrations of this scenario and it took millions of lives and the intervention of two superpowers to stop the Germans.

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><p><strong>Astropolitics of the Galaxy<strong>

This is the scenario that I wanted to create with humanity and the Systems Alliance. The Council eventually recognized that it was good to have a number of smaller powers (the many nations of Earth and her colonies) calming down the wild expanses of the Attican Traverse so as to prevent another chaotic mess like the Terminus systems. These smaller powers did their job and did not threaten anyone despite their great potential if they ever united. Also, the Humans diverted much of the unsavory elements of the Terminus into the Attican Traverse.

When the Batarian-Human rivalry started up, the Council was in a bind. They don't like the Batarians, but they brought at least a moderate amount of law and order to the Terminus which was in the interest of the Council. The Humans they were alright with for reasons mentioned above, but the Council realized that a united Humanity would be very strong, potentially strong enough to beat the Turians. The Council basically had to keep things as they were: the humans disunited and the Batarians contained but still in power to police the Terminus. This is the reason why the Asaris mediated so many pre-war peace summits before the shooting started.

When the Terminus War happened, the Council was in panic as one of those two pillars of galactic peace was going to break down. That's why they tried to again mediate some sort of peace between the two belligerents, though that obviously failed. After the bloody battle of New Tehran, the Council understood that the Humans were going to unite under the Systems Alliance after this war no matter how it ended. Fearing the potential Human juggernaut, the Council decided to back the Batarians by funneling intelligence and supplies to Batarian fleet for their offensive on Arcturus.

However, Cerberus already knew of the Council's action from the beginning, passing the intelligence to Alliance command. The entire battle for Arcturus was to sucker the Batarians into a encirclement campaign where the Alliance Combined Fleets could finally destroy the Batarian fleet. When Operation Sickle Stroke turned the war around, the Turians and Salarians were ready to intervene while the Asaris were ready to abstain to preserve their political position. This is also why the Fifth Fleet and Hackett held back from the offensive into the Terminus; Hackett was preparing to stop any Turian offensive into Alliance space. Also, Cerberus snuck a package into the Council chambers of Valern and Tevos; one showing pictures of the statue of Athame in the temple on Thessia and coordinates to the Ardat-Yakshi monastery on Lesuss and another a sample of Genophage cure. This immediately put a stop of the Turian intervention as the Salarians and Asaris now refused to back the operation, seeing as this was not going to be a quick intervention and that Cerberus was ready to essentially blow up the galactic astropolitical scene if forced to. This also has the affect on the Alliance action over Khar'shan as the bombardment of civilians over the surrender was really because of the fear of the Alliance that had to quickly wrap the war up to bring their fleets back to the Council frontier.

For their part, the Humans made the situation needlessly worse. They didn't understand that it was best to have the Batarians still around to maintain the Terminus. If the Batarians had been given some relatively magnanimous terms and didn't take every contested piece of territory, Khar'shan might have simply learned to stay within the Terminus and everyone would have been if not happy then at least satisfied. Instead, the Treaty of Elysium essentially destroyed the Batarian hegemony, though the Alliance probably couldn't have done otherwise considering popular opinion back home. Also, the Alliance is falling into the trap of the Security Dilemma: the stronger and more aggressive or defensive you become about your status, the more incentive your neighbors will have to rally together to oppose you.

The alliance's action after the war also terrified the Council. The humans didn't take over the Terminus, something that would have kept them occupied essentially forever and would exhaust them (this is a parallel to Germany not absorbing Austria during the first Unification). This implied that the humans might set their sights instead on Council space. The Humans' willingness to enter into a defensive alliance with the Quarians also meant that any species that had a bone to pick with the council (namely the Krogans) now had a very powerful potential ally in the Humans; this is made even worse by the fact that the Krogan DMZ was right in between the Council and Alliance borders. The great fear is that of the powerful Alliance fleet blasting the Turian fleet apart, scooping up the Krogan horde with the Quarian fleet, and dumping them onto the Council worlds. Finally, the humans were something that the council had never faced before: a peer competitor. The Krogans had never had an economy that they didn't blow up; the council would have eventually won the rebellion without the Genophage simply by outlasting them if the Krogans hadn't started chucking asteroids. The other species were too weak to mount any challenge. But the humans had all the properties that the Council's individual members brought together: intelligence/black ops, economy and soft diplomatic power, technology, and raw military power.

Basically, the rise of the Alliance meant that the galactic balance of power is gone. Having no experience with such a condition, the Council's post-war actions were born out of confusion, vacillating between confrontation (the Specters trying to enforce the Treaty of Firaxin and Turian military expansion) and conciliation (the Council-Alliance summit and peace initiative at the end of the timeline).


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **So now the next edition of the spoilers. This time, it concerns about some of the background for the actual plot. Again, I hope that this is a good consolation prize for not actually writing the story. Also again, please tell me if this is in violation of any rules.

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><p><strong>Background for the Protheans<strong>

The Protheans proved to be the most difficult harvest for the Reapers yet. They had came somewhat close to the reapers' own technological level, enough that they were building their own mass relays all over the place. In addition, the Protheans had the advantage of having figured out that something was perpetuating the cycle of extinction and was preparing for it. While they were still caught off guard, the Protheans offered a level of resistance the reapers had never faced before, inflicting more reaper casualties than all the other cycles before them.

The events of Ilos happened as in canon, but with different results. After the harvest, the Ilos suvivors did find other survivors elsewhere. Together, they swore that they would give the next cycle a better chance than they had. However, the Protheans then splintered as they disagreed on the potential plans for vengeance. One faction saw the Rachni to be the perfect weapon and began altering them to become incredibly aggressive and to breed an army that will destroy the reapers. They realized that it would condemn the galaxy to Rachni domination if it works, but it would still be better than the reapers. The Collectors eventually find out about the Protheans working on the Rachni and destroyed them, but not before some Rachni escaped and began preparing for total war. Unfortunately for them, the Krogans would eventually finish what the Collectors started.

The other Prothean faction, however, decided to throw their lot in with whatever species that rise in the next cycle. To that end, they laid a trap for reapers. In addition to the altering of the Keepers to make unresponsive, they sabotaged the Citadel. When the vanguard reaper comes to manually open the citadel relay, it will cause a massive feedback loop that will severely damage the reaper. In addition, it will lock all relays into their current state; not only will the citadel relay never open again without some huge repairs that the keepers will not perform, but the other relays cannot be shut off from the citadel as the reapers had done before. Finally, they hid a beacon with all their knowledge of the reapers right on the presidium, one that will activate once the Prothean trap has activated. Whoever uses the beacon would also be immunized against indoctrination (looking ahead, only Shepard gets to use it before Saren blows it up). The Protheans hoped that with the vanguard defeated and having foreknowledge of the reapers, the present species would rally and prepare to face the coming invasion.

The last of the Protheans would finally perish as they launched a suicide attack to destroy the collectors. Though they failed, they did cripple the collectors for long while and ensured that, with no one left to tell the tale, their plans would remain a secret.

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><p><strong>Background for the Quarians<strong>

As mentioned before, the Quarians formed a strong mutually beneficial relationship with the humans. The alliance is primarily the result of the combined efforts of the Admiral Board. Each admiral did so for a different reason. Shala'raan simply wished for her people to finally have a friend they could rely upon and just to better the lives of her people. Zaal'koris believed that the humans could help him finally realize the goal of finding a new home world. Not surprisingly, Daro'Xen vas Moreh backed the alliance to gain access to Alliance tech and resources. The hardline faction of Rael'Zorah and Han'Gerrel saw the chance to gain a powerful and sympathetic ally that they might eventually be able to convince to help them retake Rannoch from the Geth.

To further their goals, the Admiralty Board decided to prove their usefulness and reliability to the humans by helping them at every turn. The return of the purchased Alliance ships as well as Quarian labor at the Alliance shipyards allowed the Alliance to sustain the horrible attrition during the Battle of New Tehran and to break the Batarian strategic reserves. Also, the Migrant fleet laid anchorage at several potentially threatened human star systems, making the Batarians unwilling to attack them lest they draw the Quarians into the war. Finally, Quarian ships offered their services as refugee transports, allowing many human colonists to escape the Batarian onslaught.

Their efforts were well rewarded. The new Quarian home world at the Twilight Expanse (a star cluster I made up, so don't look it up) is a dextro world at the very beginning of its life cycle, one that could be easily colonized. The Twilight Expanse's location in the Skyllian Verge allowed them to be perpetually useful to the humans by controlling and defending a large part of the Alliance-Terminus frontier. Also, its location is only a few relay jumps from the Perseus Veil allowed their new home world to serves as a launch pad for the eventual effort to retake their old home world.

The point with the Quarians here is to demonstrate the concept of subtle influence rather than overt power in the game of diplomacy. For even the huge size of their fleet, the Quarians were not very powerful without a friend to fall back on. Once the Admiralty Board realized the opportunity they had to established a strong friendship with the new rising power, they seized it with a vengeance. They also got a good deal out of it too. Their new home world is strategically vital, meaning that the Alliance will always protect them, and close to the Perseus Veil. In addition, the terms of their alliance is pretty good; in the event of war between the Council and the Alliance, the Quarians only have to defend their own territory to contribute to their ally as the great fear of the alliance is a two front war. In addition, the main theater of conflict will be towards the Alliance-Council border, which is far away from the Twilight Expanse. Finally, they now have full access to the Alliance economic, scientific, and industrial base. The most significant way this manifests is that the Quarians are no longer bound to their suits thanks to a combination of epigenic therapy and implants that reign in their immune system; however, the Quarians still cover themselves around everyone except family and friends as they are still not used to being so exposed again.

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><p><strong>Background on Cerberus<strong>

Not surprisingly, my Cerberus is a black-ops organization that has "gone rogue", though with the secret backing of the Alliance. Most of the initial founders were N7 Force Recon Marines; this includes the Illusive Man. Obviously, Cerberus' great advantages are training, fanaticism, and technology. Cerberus is really the cream of the crop of the Alliance. That said, their great weakness is personal intelligence (the real life term is human intelligence, but that obviously doesn't work here). Being seen as a human supremacist organization, they don't get that many friends among aliens. This is where the Salarians and the Shadow Broker still hold the advantage.

My intention was to paint the Illusive Man in a much more sane manner than in canon. Now, part of this is that he's operating from a position of relative strength, having the Alliance back him and all. But also, he was meant to be something of an Otto von Bismarck. The Illusive Man was the grand maestro who orchestrated unification through war as Bismarck had done. And like Bismarck, he realizes the utility of humility; there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose in a war with the Council. He doesn't want to either have humanity rule over alien subjects or for the Alliance to wage a genocidal war to the finish; after all, he thinks that Humanity has already gotten everything it needs and now wanted nothing more than for humanity to be left alone. Therefore, Illusive Man had gone from a war hawk to a peacemaker, though one that acts through agents rather than directly.

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><p><strong>Background on Nathaniel Shepard<strong>

Nathaniel Shepard was definitely unique. To begin, he has all the backgrounds. He lost his father on Mindoir, though Hannah Shepard was part of the rescue force that saved Nathaniel. The first time that Shepard came to the notice of the Alliance brass was during a patrol on Akuze (this time, it is not a Cerberus plot, but merely a simple accident). Shepard save his squad by singlehandedly killing the the thresher maw. Seeing the whole thing with his own eyes, General Mathais William (Ashley's grandfather) then decided to take Shepard under his wing. Elysium and Torfan were already discussed.

Most people are not sure if Nathaniel is insane or just really good at faking it. He loves a good struggle or fight, adopting any opposite position just to have some fun opposing you. He also believes in reincarnation, convinced that he has lived many lives as soldiers in wars throughout human history. He literally loves war and doesn't fear pain or death; he's a closest masochist and thinks that killing him would only delay his inevitable victory by a lifetime. He doesn't really want to kill anyone; he just want to beat them and considers death of his opponents to be an unfortunate side effect. He is a racist, but a very benign one that doesn't believe in human superiority or righteousness and thinks that there are still codes of chivalry and civility to adhere to in a race war; he fights for the Alliance because that is just his team. Conversely, he holds great respect for alien soldiers as he thinks that they are doing their duty of fighting for their people but absolutely despises mercenaries of all races as racial traitors. Finally, he's convinced that he has a destiny. When the Terminus war was over, Shepard actually fell into a depression as the war didn't fulfill his ambitions and that he thinks that this is going to be at least another lifetime before his destiny comes to him. When the reapers show up, Shepard is convinced that destroying them is that great destiny that he was created for and is absolutely ecstatic about the coming war.

Outside of his personality, he was meant to be something akin to a Mass Effect version of Halo's Master Chief: someone that is pretty damn good at everything, but not the best. He's not a sentinel, but rather a combination of all three hybrid classes: the sentinel, vanguard, and infiltrator. Nathaniel has biotics, but it is weak enough that if he threw everything he had into a single blast, he might be able to knock a man on his back. Instead, Shepard uses biotics to enhance himself, telekinetically grabbing things, biotically enhancing his grenade throws, lowering his inertia to speed up or jump, and so forth.

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><p><strong>Background on some of the Normandy team<strong>

**Joker** still serves as the wisecracking pilot of the Normandy, but the war has made a veteran out of him. He was part of the Luna Academy class of 2299 that were rushed into service at the Battle of Arcturus. The Class of 2299 was massacred during the battle as Hackett was forced to throw them against far stronger Batarian forces to slow them down as he plugged the holes in the Alliance lines. Flying the destroyer _Sekigahara _in dozen of sorties, Joker became the sole survivor of his entire class and the undisputed greatest pilot of the Alliance navy. On a side note, Joker still has Vrolik syndrome, though not because there's nothing he could do about it. Rather, Vrolik syndrome has the odd benefit of hypersensitivity to motion, giving him a sixth sense that not even inertial dampeners can suppress.

**James Vega** was a rookie marine in the 194th regiment during the battle of Torfan who, by chance, had the honor of fighting along Shepard. The sheer ferocity with which Vega carried himself convinced Shepard to put in a fast tracking commendation for him into the N7 program, bypassing several additional layers of N level training; however odd it was, no one was willing to second guess the great Commander Nathaniel Shepard. By the time of the story, Vega joins the Totenkopf as an N7 Destroyer.

**Miranda Lawson** was meant to be introduced as Cerberus' attache to the Normandy. In deep cover, she acts as a meek analyst tagging alone for the ride. Shepard sees through her cover and constantly prod her to let loose her real side. Eventually, Miranda drops her cover and simply massacre a bunch of geth with her biotic (enhanced by my tech) and enhanced physical performance capacities during the battle for the citadel (it happens far earlier around when recruiting Tali in the first game). We later see that Miranda actually has involved in Shepard's career from almost the beginning without him knowing it. Elysium turned out to be a Alliance-Cerberus plot to provoke the Batarians into war. Miranda was assigned by the Illusive man to chose a formation of Force Recon Marines to be stationed at Grissom at the time of the attack. Shepard and the Totenkopf were meant to fight and die gloriously as martyrs for humanity. But Shepard not only defied the odds, but won and captured the Terminus force. Ever since, Miranda has been fascinated by Shepard and pulled strings to make sure that the Totenkopf were always at the right time and place to make history, each time defying the odds. Eden Prime was finally her chance to see the man in person and she volunteered for the mission. There is chemistry between them as they both consider each other their equal while Shepard inspires her to discard genetic determinism; we learn that Miranda was created by Henry Lawson as a perfect woman that would counter all the appeals and strengths of the Asari and Salarians.

**Ashley Williams** is also involved as General Mathias Williams was the one who recruited Shepard into the N7 program after Akuze and made sure that he wouldn't wash out despite Shepard's odd mental state. She knows that her grandfather treats Shepard almost like a son and is familiar some aspects of Nathaniel's personality. Ashley is introduced on Eden Prime, but as the lone survivor near death as she alone held off Saren from the beacon for a long time, this being the only reason why Shepard suspects that there's a conspiracy behind the attack. Shepard takes her under his wings to repay his personal debt to General Williams who died in the war (that did somewhat redeem the Williams family). There's also chemistry between Shepard and Ashley as she sees what she wants to be and he sees in her a reminder of his humanity.

**Kaidan** **Alenko** is the closest thing Shepard has to a brother. Also an N7 Force Recon Marine, they first met during Elysium and they have fought side by side ever since. Kaidan serves as a moderating force on Shepard sometimes, bringing an element of sanity to the Totenkopf. Kaidan also serves as a biotic N7 Paladin, his combination of powerful biotics and the omni-shields making him famous; it also makes him a victim of pranks from Shepard and Vega centered the Captain America comics which includes hacking Kaidan's omni-shield to give it a new, more American, design.

**Wrex** has his plot lines accelerated to become an old acquaintance of Shepard. Wrex was hired by the Batarians after the war to assassinate Shepard. However, Shepard surprises Wrex by tracking the Krogan to Omega and challenging him to a duel to the death while ordering Kaidan and James to intervene only if someone else jumps in. After tear much of the station and each other to pieces, they suddenly stop fighting and starting laughing their asses off before going to Afterlife to buy each other drinks. Afterward, Wrex pulled out of the contract and helped Shepard to eliminate the rest of the assassins after him while Shepard helped Wrex retrieve his family armor.

Like Wrex, **Garrus** also is an old friend by the time he joins the Normandy. Doctor Saleon's story is where Shepard jumps in; while visiting the Citadel, one of Saleon's patients literally poured his guts out on Shepard, making him a witness that C-Sec had to hold. Seeing Garrus enraged over Saleon's escape, Shepard offered to pull some strings with the Alliance to help Garrus go after the mad doctor. After they shut Saleon down, Garrus refused to go back to C-Sec and became Archangel, with Shepard helping to set him up on Omega. Shepard's reasoning behind this is that "it sounded fun".

**Tali** is also involved as an old flame. She was on pilgrimage to Elysium during the Blitz and helped Shepard beat the Batarians by hacking their transports and using them as giant missiles against the ground forces. Shepard would become Tali's first. Though he cared for her, he ended it because he believed that she would have no real future with him. Tali would eventually wind with Kal'reegar, though she still care deeply for Shepard. During her time with Shepard, she trained under him, learning the arts of stealth in addition to close combat. Tali is brought on board when the Quarians asked to a representative on the mission. Like other Quarians, she covers her face behind a veil unless she is alone with friends and family.


End file.
